Alexis Kawasaki's Cancer Journey
- Alexis Kawasaki was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 18 when she started her freshman year in college.
- Kawasaki began to share her cancer journey on TikTok as a way to stay connected to other young people and now has millions of views.
- She is using her platform to raise awareness about ovarian cancer and encourages other young women to get checked out for any possible symptoms.
Alexis Kawasaki thought her 2020 could not get any worse when her boyfriend broke up with her, but life is full of surprises. About two months later, Kawasaki was enjoying the start of her freshman year in college, away from home for the first time, when she was diagnosed with
ovarian cancer at age 18. “I did not think it was cancer at all. I just had really, really bad pelvic pain,” she says. “And they took my tissue and I found out that I have stage II ovarian cancer.”
Related: 7 Well-Known Women Who Battled Ovarian Cancer, Including Actresses Kathy Bates, Cobie Smulders & Activist Coretta Scott King; What to Know About the Disease
Read More She dropped out of the University of Utah to focus on her health, but still found a way to stay connected to other young people at a time when she felt the loneliest. Kawasaki began sharing her cancer journey on
TikTok, where she has millions of views, and received an overwhelming amount of support. “Thank you so much for your love and positivity,” Kawasaki says. “It means the world to me. We are going to kick cancer’s ass.” Some of her videos are light-hearted, as she makes fun of the fact that she was dumped and shortly thereafter diagnosed with cancer. In
one video, she says, “I can’t talk right now, I’m doing hot girl sh*t,” which then shows her waiting anxiously in a doctor’s office. After one of her videos blew up on TikTok getting
4.5 million views, she decided to share
her symptoms of ovarian cancer, which is less common in younger women. Her cancer went undetected for a long time because she was misdiagnosed with having an infection and later endometriosis. Her message to her TikTok community is for other young women to get a pelvic or vaginal ultrasound if they experience any kind of pain. She is an advocate for awareness and happily answers any questions that her nearly 22,000 followers may have about ovarian cancer.
Related: TikTok Sensation and Cancer Fighter, Tess Halbert, Uses Humor in Her Videos and Embraces the More Unusual Side Effects of ChemoKawasaki, now 19, has been in remission since the end of November and is back in college. “It’s the greatest feeling. I was unable to even sit up on my own for months without someone lifting me up and to finally live on my own terms is freakin’ amazing,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, the support from my family will never be taken for granted, but I was isolated for so long and I just needed to come back to people my age and just be able to laugh again.”
While Kawasaki is glad that she will not need chemotherapy, she still regularly has to get blood tests, CT scans and MRIs to monitor for a possible recurrence or return of her cancer. She says she plans to freeze her eggs and get her ovaries removed in the near future. Her family started a GoFundMe page to raise money to help with the costs of her surgeries, hospital bills and fertility preservation. Kawasaki has graciously agreed to allow us to use her content in order to help our community.
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Noorulain Khawaja is a freelance multimedia journalist. Read More
